Memorabilia of Richard Henry Rozental, who escaped to the East, probably in the autumn of 1939, and later joined the Anders' Army, made it to the UK, received military training in the USA and Canada, and became an RAF aviator. After the war, he returned to Poland and lived in Łódź.
His parents were Dawid Szymon Rozenthal, an internal medicine doctor and paediatrician from Kalisz, and Ałta Echume, née Gelb. Their registration card from Kalisz has survived, thanks to which (although it is not a fully reliable source) we know their dates of birth and other personal details. Dawid Szymon was the son of Izrael Rozentahl and Szyfra née Rozentahl (sic!), and was born in 1893 in Kalisz. Ałta Echume was the daughter of Szlama Gelb and Rachela née Gutfrojnd, born in 1901. They were married in 1923 in Kalisz, Dawid Rozentahl had previously lived in Łódź (probably in connection with his medical studies), and a year after their marriage the couple lived at 2 Kilińskiego Square (with a break between late 1936 and spring 1939 at 19 Eleventh of November Square, then they returned to Kilińskiego Square). The registration card says: “18-X-39. dereg. [?] in the un[known] dir[ection]”. We do not know more about the fate of the parents. From the account of Janina Rozental, who married Ryszard several years after the war, and who donated her late husband's mementos to the POLIN Museum in the second decade of the 21st century and told his story at the time, it appears that her parents fled Kalisz with their son to the Soviet Union. There they were killed probably in a robbery. According to another version, David Rozentahl's death occurred on 30 April 1943 in Warsaw (see the information inInformator. Kultura, Sport, Rekreacja, Turystyka. Kalisz 2018, p. 116; https://www.mbp.kalisz.pl/download/INFORMATOR%202018.pdf, accessed 31.05.2023).
We know from surviving documents that Richard Rozental studied at the Tomsk Medical Institute. However, the medical studies credit report only has credits from the first semester of the academic year 1941/1942. In fact, the 18-year-old managed to get into the Polish Armed Forces, the so-called Anders' Army, which, as is well known, was not an easy feat, on the one hand because of the difficulties imposed onto Polish Jews by Soviet authorities, and on the other, the anti-Semitic prejudices of a large part of the PAF soldiers themselves, including the military administration.
Ryszard Rozental eventually ended up in the UK, from where he flew to Canada and the USA for flight training. He was a Royal Air Force pilot (the museum collection contains his pilot's cap, a small aerial measuring device, photographs, playing cards). After the war, he returned to Poland and was a translator thanks to his excellent knowledge of English.
Paradoxically, Ryszard's memorabilia from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom can also be seen as contributing to the story of his 'rescue in the East'.
Przemysław Kaniecki; the author would like to thank Mr. Henryk Juszczak for his valuable contributions.